Can You Hear Me Now?

Sunday, as I was walking home from the rose garden, I passed by an area where my cellphone could not receive a strong cell signal. My conversation with the Sis was abruptly interrupted with loud buzzing and whirring noises, plus strange sounds similar to robotic voices. Interrupted in the middle of my engrossed storytelling, I immediately sequed into "Hullo? Hullo? Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? I can't hear anything...Hullo?"

In the worry of trying to connect with the Sis, I couldn't hear what she was saying and so we were throwing signals back and forth to each other, but neither really connecting with any coherence. We were not connecting b/c of bad reception -- and it was not just the cellphone towers that were guilty of bad reception. I wasn't tuned in, either, being too busy to hear anything but the sound of my own voice being echoed back to me.

It made me think of this coming week's lesson in I Kings 8.

8:1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.

8:6 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim.

8:10 And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD,

8:11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.

8:22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven.

8:23 He said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart,

8:24 the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand.

8:25 Therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, 'There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.'

8:26 Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David.

8:27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!

8:28 Regard your servant's prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today;

8:29 that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, 'My name shall be there,' that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.

8:30 Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.

8:41 "Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name

8:42 --for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm--when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house,

8:43 then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.

- I Kings 8

Yesterday (Aug. 16th) was the anniversary of the first message to be sent successfully across the TransAtlantic Telegraph Cable. The endeavor to extend a cable across the oceans is only one of many, many attempts to improve the way human beings communicate with one another. Sometimes, it takes way too long -- the first message to be transmitted through the 1858 telegraph cable (from Queen of England to President Buchanan) took 17 hours to transmit (according to Wikipedia!). Imagine waiting to receive that message!!

Sometimes, we don't connect like we want to. I have been playing phone tag with quite a few friends lately. One lives in Florida (three hour difference!) and another lives in LA. Yet another lives in Texas and another lives in Viet Nam. We simply don't connect -- bad timing, bad signals, etc. We end up leaving messages with one another like a virtual "poke" to say "Hey, you still alive over there?" and we wait to see if there are big news we need to check in about.

There are few things we can rely on, but one sure thing is that God hears our prayers. When you "pray toward" God, you're connected. There's no such thing as a bad connection. You might not like what you get from the other end of the line, but what you're receiving and hearing depends heavily on what you're willing to listen to, as well.

Regardless of what worship house/building/tent we construct, we know that God is available 24/7. And, even better, you can be friend or foe, foreigner or native (ha ha those distinctions are soooo relative), anyone can get in on "the family plan". You don't have to be part of the Favorite 5, and you don't have to the part of the Top 10, and you don't have to be on the same calling plan. If you want to connect, you'll be surprised to know the Listener is already on the line.